In the 17th century, scientists used physics to explain the miracles described in the Bible.
CHR Comment: Biblical studies and scientific studies were not always regarded as conflicting. One might imagine at least three different relationships between the two disciplines: (1) Bible centered, (2) science centered, and (3) a sort of binary orbit where the disciplines orbit their common ground.
A majority of the public says science and religion often conflict, but people’s sense that they do seems to have less to do with their own religious beliefs than their perception of others’ beliefs.
CHR comment: As science gained importance in the medieval era, Christian theologians emphasized the harmony between science and religious belief, which continued into the modern period. Since the Enlightenment, non-religious people have argued for a gulf between science and religion. The Pew findings illustrate that non-religious people continue to hold to that bias.
Source: What U.S. Religious Groups Think About Science Issues | Pew Research Center
Jim Fletcher reviews Inside the Nye-Ham Debate, which took place at the Creation Museum. The debate is the latest installment in the century old dialogue between evangelicals and modernists.
Pitting evolution against creationism.
This article explores the differences between evolutionary biology and creationism. What creationists should not forget is that Christianity also teaches that the creation is corrupted since the fall into sin. Things don’t always function as they should.
National Geographic recently posted an article by Book Talk editor, Simon Worrall. I was struck by this paragraph:
There is a tendency on the part of some Muslim scholars to exaggerate the accomplishments of Islamic science. And they don’t need to be exaggerated. During the golden age of Islamic science, which ended somewhere between A.D. 1100 and 1200, Muslim scientists were way ahead of their contemporaries in Christian Europe.
Although it is true that the Muslim scientists were ahead of the Christian Europeans at this point, the article might have mentioned how Muslim tribesmen learned scientific method. They read Arabic translations of scientific works, which were translated by Syriac Christians from the pagan, ancient Greeks. So ironically, Christians were responsible for those medieval Arabs knowing their scientific texts, which had been lost to the Christians in Europe (though not likely lost to the Christians in Byzantium).
church history review 